THE MARKED
by Qewey-01
Summary: There is a new Evil rising in Mobius, and it may prove to be the greatest challenge for Sonic and the gang, then an old story from Knuckles tribe provides answers on how to combat this evil. A story about powerful guardians known as... The Marked.


THE MARKED

The Story

CC is made by E-vay all credit goes to her for the Character

A long time ago there was a great tribe, the echidna tribe, they were known for their short temperedness and limited knowledge of the world because of this they often waged war with other tribes and were infamous for their brutal and bloody battles. Their enemies could easily destroy the tribe with their advanced weapons, to the echidna's primitive spears and sticks, however no matter how advanced they were the echidna's possessed a power greater than anything that man could build. They were called the Chaos Emeralds, divine stones that were unknown of origin, and the Master Emerald the most powerful of all the emeralds.

The emeralds were around for as long man walked the earth giving the gift of Chaos, the force that gave life to the entire planet. No one knew if it was a godly being that bestowed the magical rocks upon the Mobians, or if they were gods themselves encased within the emeralds. However they were sure of one thing, anyone who had an emerald could tap into awesome power and become godly themselves, and it was the echidnas who understood this more than any other species. They had gathered the emeralds and dedicated a shrine to all seven emeralds and in the middle was the towering Master Emerald, looking over all echidnas for many generations.

When the echidnas wanted the emeralds power the guardian would pray to them and ask for the divine power. It was almost immediate and the echidnas were pleased, they had easily become the strongest tribe in all of Mobius. The echidnas had repaid this favor by praying every day to the emeralds and revering them, made material offerings to them, and kept them in prestige so that when anyone would look at them they would be in awe.

The Master Emerald had repaid them with gifts, the first was small creatures called Chaos as companions for the echidnas they were very grateful. (Because almost every other tribe despised them.) The second was giving the guardian the power of healing, this was because of an epidemic that had swept the tribe, and the echidnas were very grateful for this gift. The last was more of a lesson to echidnas than a gift, but still a gift none the less, since the echidnas wanted war with just about everything it had made the Master Emerald sad. All of the species of Mobians were the Master Emeralds children, and they wanted them to live in peace, so it made an animal with divine visions in the shape of another species. In any other case the echidnas would have killed the creation, for it was not an echidna, but since it was divine creature they were astounded. It is unknown what type of animal it was or what gender, but it could use powers that the echidnas could not fathom and they had promoted it to 'Speaker of the Emerald'.

The Speaker stood out not just for its different type of animal, it had a strange mark on its face, it represented the Master Emerald and it was colored green as well as the Master Emerald. When it was uncertain what to do whether it be a peace treaty or deceleration of war, the chieftain would go to The Speaker and get his answer no matter what it was the chieftain would follow the predictions of The Speaker, and nothing was questioned.

When asked about war The Speaker never had a prediction they would win in the end, it was recorded that The Speaker would say, "You may win, but in the Master Emeralds eyes, you have failed miserably." so they did not go to war as often and agreed to peace and had built strong relations with other species. The Master Emerald was pleased with his servant and the echidnas, but not all of this was to last, many echidnas wanted the olden days of war again and time and time again asked the chieftain to go to war. The chieftain just replied "I shall consult The Speaker." and this had made the pure blood echidnas very angry.

Over time many other beings called The Marked were made by the Master Emerald, they weren't as powerful as The Speaker, but they acted as guardians of the people instead, many had started families with Echidnas and this had made the pure blooded echidnas even angrier, as they had a strict rule against mixing blood. Finally the pure bloods left the clan and started their own they had threaten war, but they too were unsure of the decision. They went to the Master Emerald, for all echidnas were welcomed to the shrine and pray, and asked for their own Speaker.

The Master Emerald decided to give another lesson to the echidnas and made a Speaker and other Marked for the pure bloods, but these were made of negative energy, sinister Chaos that was responsible for emotions like anger, hate, and sadness. The Speaker for the pure bloods was all for war, but he had dragged all the marked and the other Speaker into it, causing great bloodshed on both sides. This was called The Great Chaos War, and it almost exterminated the echidna kind altogether, in the end the two speakers waged a great battle and both were killed and returned to the Chaos. The lesson had worked, both tribes came together and helped one another as before, but in a way the Master Emerald had not predicted.

They rounded up The Marked survivors, men, women, and children alike, and began to kill them, they were mortal after all. They did not want The Marked, to live after what they had seen; the Master Emerald wept for its children again it had seemed that they did not learn their lesson after all. Since then The Marked were never seen or heard of every again, but it is rumored that they will be back to protect once again...

* * *

Knuckles recited the story for his confused friends, closing the book as the last sentence came to a end, he spoken this story to help clear light on a predicament that he had faced this morning. The Chaos Emeralds were acting strange letting off strange energies that Knuckles had never felt before, the Master Emerald was letting off the most and Knuckles had taken this as a return of The Marked or one of The Speakers, if that was the case he wanted to destroy them quickly to ensure that the emeralds were safe and all of Mobius for that matter.

"So were going off this on a superstition and a bedtime story to back it up, hmpf, you would have nothing to fear if your ancestors hadn't killed em all..." Shadow remarked, leaning on one of the pillars that supported the shrine.

"That's not it Shadow, you have no idea how strong these people were, if one of them turns out to be made of negative energy..." Knuckles stated, sitting crisscross in front of the Master Emerald.

"So what? It's not like you've seen how strong they are either, it could turn out to be a pushover, and even if it is strong you've got 3 guys here to protect you..." Shadow said, keeping his cool posture on the pillar.

"Shadow's right Knux we're a team here, you gotta stop worrying." Sonic said from atop his perch, he was lying down on the bridge connecting the two front pillars together. "Besides, you said that The Marked are guardians of the people, so if it does show up it could be a good guy."

"Yeah and what if it's made of negative energy and decides to test its new body out on Central City?" Knuckles said agitated, tapping his fingers on his arms.

"Okay, but that's a one in million chance to happen right? I mean the only way I found out about negative energy was from the Meterex."

"You have no idea how vast negative energy is do you?"

"No, but I got a best friend who does, tell him Tails." Sonic gestured to Tails with his hand, Tails was going about scanning the area with a Chaos Scanner to try and get the energy levels of this historic event he almost didn't answer.

"Well, Sonic is right in a way, in my studies I have found that negative energy is rare for someone to control..." Tails began to trail off he found a big spike in energy and got a closer look at.

"Thank you-" Sonic had started to say, but then was cut off by Tails who had gotten done with the scanning.

"But Knuckles is right as well if the Master Emerald, or any emerald for that matter, makes a being they are exposed to it more and increases the likelihood that they could be twisted by the negative energy. Just as you were Sonic when you turned Dark..."

"Thank you Tails!" Knuckles exclaimed looking up at Sonic. "Got anything for that, Hedgehog?"

Sonic kept quiet swinging his foot back and forth below the ridge of the bridge; Knuckles took this as a victory and chuckled as he closed his eyes again to continue meditating. Tails kept scanning around getting closer to the Master Emerald just as if he were following a trail; this had made the device get louder and, to Shadow, more annoying. Shadow opened one eye and saw that Tails was getting closer to him, as he was scanning the pillars.

"Get that thing near me and i'll give it something to read..." He warned the kit letting off Chaos Energy. Tails took the warning and went around him gripping the device closely to him.

"Sorry about that, it's just that in all my studies I've never seen such a large convergence of energy! Readings are up in the thousands and even the millions" He gasped. "I wonder if The Marked will have the same reading?!"

Shadow heard this and didn't care; if this being had energy that high then Shadow would have to train to surpass it which just gave him an excuse to fight. Sonic and Knuckles however were a little worried, they were not as committed to training as Shadow was and they had lower levels of Chaos in them, both of them decided they should train as soon as this event was over.

"So, Tails how's has it been going around your place huh?" Sonic asked to change the subject and kill time.

"Well it's been great actually, Cosmo is happy and I decided to make sure she would never be alone when i'm gone by using a new invention I found." Tails responded saving his last energy scan in the device.

"That plant girl is back? For how long?" Shadow asked looking at Tails with both eyes now.

"Well she's hasn't been back for 8 years now, and her name is not 'plant girl' its Cosmo..." Tails noted sitting down on the steps of the shrine, Shadow just scoffed making Tails a little more agitated.

"What's the invention you left her with?" Knuckles joined in the conversation, standing up and feeling the Master Emerald for out of control energy.

"Well I found her in an abandoned shed and it likes to call herself Code Compiler, but I call her CC for short..."

"Her?"

"She's has a female voice so I call her, her."

"Well little brother I didn't know you were such a ladies' man..." Sonic joked, this made Tails blush he was very shy around the subject.

"Well she's not really a girl..." He stuttered making Sonic laugh.

"I'm just joking with you dude, take it easy."

"Oh it was a joke... I knew that." Tails tried to save himself but it just made Sonic chuckle even more, Sonic had always done that to Tails. He thought of it as messing with him like brothers would do to each other almost every day. Tails was always shy when Cosmo was around he had worked up the courage to hug her, Sonic swore on this, in public once.

"S-So Sonic what have you been doing all this time?" Tails inquired to get the subject off of him for a while.

"Same old, same old bud. Enjoying freedom and taking down Eggman at his own game, just minor stuff though nothing you need to be worried about." Sonic replied recollecting all of his past adventures. "I dunno about this whole Marked thing but I do know one thing, it makes me pretty excited for a whole new type of adventure to be had."

"For once I agree with you faker, but for me it gives a reason to test out my new Chaos abilities." Shadow responded clenching his fist, showing off more of his aura. Knuckles just scoffed at his cockiness and kept moving his hands over the Master Emerald.

"What are you doing echidna, I can sense to unrest in the Chaos from here." Shadow stated standing over Knuckles shoulder.

"If you must know I'm trying to detect where all the energy is going." Knuckles answered with eyes closed and hands moving up and down the Master Emerald.

"This way I can pinpoint where The Marked may appear."

"The Marked is not going to appear in the shrine? I thought you said they appeared out of thin air next to the Master Emerald." Tails asked confused, standing up from his spot on the stairs.

"Yes the legends would say that at least one of The Marked would appear next to Master Emerald, but if it makes more then they'll be separated just like the Chaos Emeralds scattered after every use."

"Well have you pinpointed any? If not I can use my device..."

"That won't help, I can't find the others, all I know is that there will be seven appearing. All this energy, why is the Master Emerald doing this? It makes me worried; maybe this is a warning that there will be an enemy much stronger than all of us combined..."

"Or maybe the Master Emerald want to see if we can live with The Marked again, we've come a long way from paranoid tribes, no offence Knuckles."

"Don't be my people couldn't see that The Marked meant no harm to us, all they knew is that they were stronger, had strange power, and there were more of them. When The Marked gets here i'll apologize on behalf of my people and all Mobians and Humans alike."

"I won't think you'll have to..." Shadow spoke up walking down the steps of the shrine.

"What do you mean Shadow?" Knuckles responded looking in his direction.

"It's been two hours now, no one's showing up, and frankly i'm getting a little annoyed at how much time I spent here... Goodbye." Shadow jumped off the last step and began to walk off towards the Mystic Ruins, Sonic ran over to him stopping him dead in his tracks.

"Aw c'mon Shadow, you're gonna miss it... then you'll be sorry..." Sonic childishly.

"Get out of the way faker, i'm not going to waste any more of my time here..." Shadow warned his Hedgehog counterpart.

"C'mon Shadow you're getting all huffy just because I won't make room for 'The Ultimate Life Form'?" Sonic mocked.

"I'll say it one more time, move or i'll make you move..."

"Ah Shadow, do I sense hostility? If I didn't know better, I would have to say that you were going to try and use one of your almighty abilities on me..."

"The thought never occurred to me, but now that it's entered my head, perhaps I should..."

Sonic got a grin on his face, and Shadow scoffed at his excitement, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Shadow had prepared to show Sonic what he meant when suddenly his ears grated to the same annoying beeping sound of Tails's device.

"What did I tell you, fox, turn that thing off or i'll move to you after I kill this one!" Shadow threatened, pointing at Sonic but still kept his gaze on him.

"S-S-Shadow I didn't turn it on, it did it itself..." Tails hesitantly responded.

"What?"

"L-Look..."

"Stop stuttering and speak up boy, look at what?!"

"Shadow shut up... and look." Sonic spoke this time looking away from Shadow and focusing on the Emeralds. Shadow was about to explode with anger, but it all went away when he laid his eyes on the shrine; it was clear why they were all awestruck.

The Emeralds were flashing like strobe lights and began to shake violently, they slowly floated up as did the Master Emerald, and the smaller emeralds began to spin slowly around the Master Emerald making their circle smaller and larger. The Master Emerald glowed brightly like a light bulb about to go out, and the Chaos Emeralds went towards the Master Emerald their spinning circle getting faster as they got closer towards it making loose dust and debris fly in the air. All the colors of the emeralds made a bright rainbow, making the four watching shield their eyes, the bright light then took the form of a sphere and floated above all the emeralds shining down on the shrine. Then all of the emeralds stopped their shaking and spinning the air was filled with little sparks of light, rocks, and everything the earth had to offer, the Master Emerald absorbed the light and shot up a single beam of light. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow looked up as the Master Emerald shot up the beam looking at which direction it took, but it was easier said than done, the beam had reached the climax of its height and floated there then it let out a high pitch whine and shot off in seven different colors. Red, Black, Blue, Aqua, Yellow, Green, and Purple, they went off in all corners of the globe making Knuckles aggravated but there was one thing that made him scared. The color black was shot off and none of the colors of the emeralds were black, it was always Red, Aqua, Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple, and White, he thought to himself and came to the conclusion that it was the negative energy one and saw that it flew off far north.

"Wow some light show huh guys?" Sonic asked, still looking up at the sky.

"I-I'm absolutely stunned, what was that?" Tails responded, taking out his device and scanning the surrounding area.

"Whatever it was, it was strong..." Shadow commented trying to single out an energy reading.

"Damn can't get a reading, it looks like they want to stay unnoticed."

"It doesn't matter we'll track them down, and see what their intentions are. I'm just glad the emeralds are intact and still usable, a little surprise actually." Knuckles pointed out looking at all the emeralds, looking like they never move from their shrines at all.

"I can't get anything on our Marked people, but I do detect in this area a chaotic reading of..." Tails trailed off, getting a blank look.

"What, what is it?" Sonic edged on, trying to get a look at the device himself, Tails then uttered out the numbers.

"100,000..." Everyone, got a shocked look, they had only felt powers of 10,000 before.

"N-No way, you're lying!" Knuckles accused grabbing the device only to find out it was the truth. 'Your device must be defective, or something, no one can get that strong no one!"

"Would you shut up Echidna!? We have bigger issues to take care of than your weak power problem!" Shadow exclaimed.

"I don't think you understand Shadow, his power is-"

"I know, but it's nothing to mine..."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me... your power is a like a rock to their boulder of a power!"

"How dare you, I could kill them all with my hands tied behind my back!"

"You little...!"

"Guys, I think Sonic found something..." Tails said breaking up the fight for now, the three walked over to Sonic who was crouched over something when they saw what he was inspecting, they all jumped back.

The object was a passed out gray furred fox, who laid there with a mark on his arm, it was one of The Marked.

"Yo Tails he kinda looks like you... doesn't he?" Sonic asked for Tails opinion. Tails looked at the fox and just shook his head, this fox was a bit thinner and his face fur was not as long as Tails's, he also had a tuft of white fur on his chest where as Tails had a whole chest of white fur, the most discernible thing between the two was his head hair was longer, white, and split down the middle where as Tails had only three spikes of hair jutting out of his head.

"You think we should wake him?" Sonic asked getting up from his crouching position, and looked at all of them. Tails just scanned the fox with the device and saw that the power was coming from him, he shook his head again.

"That power is coming from him, and if he's made of negative energy then we're dead..."

"He's not made of negative energy, at least I can't sense any on him, he could be docile for all we know." Knuckles commented still keeping his distance away from the fox making his statement a oxymoron.

Everyone stood still looking to one another for an answer, they all wanted someone to go forward to shake him, stir him awake, or at least say something towards him. The feeling of anxiety along with anticipation filled the surrounding air, with the whisping wind the only sound heard on this open field.

"So, rock-paper-scissors anyone?" This made everyone either jump or turn their head quickly to Sonic making him dart his eyes and hold his palms open. "It was just a suggestion, seeing as how we've been standing here spinning our wheels."

"Sonics' right, we've got to at least check and the only way we can do that is to wake him up." Tails kneeling down next to The Marked, slowly extended his hand toward the unconscious, his arm shaking in nervousness.

"Well, are you going to wake him up two tail? Or am I gonna have to be the man here?" Shadow asked looking down over Tails, changing the mood to a little bit of tension between them. Tails's determination to prove that he was no longer the helpless kid steadied his hand and grabbed the fox's shoulder shaking him slowly as the rest watched in anticipation and kept their guard up for the worst.

* * *

My consciousness had come back to me by the slow shaking of an unknown feeling; I opened my eyes only to nearly shut them again from the blinding sunlight. As I adjusted to the light I started to lean up off my back and I felt the unknown feeling move with me, it was located on my shoulder and my eyes had made its first image in over five thousand years. The image was a face, this face was of an adolescent I presumed him to be at least 15 or 16, he had a blank stare as if he was waiting for me do something his pupils were slightly twitching though telling me that he was frightened or nervous. I still felt the feeling on my shoulder and I took my eyes off him only to find that it was his hand on my shoulder. I looked at his hand then his face then his hand again indicating I wanted him to let go of me, he understood this and quickly retracted his hand still watching me with those nervous eyes.

It just now hit me that he was afraid of me I didn't know why, I tried to get up and tell him I meant him no harm but my efforts came to a halt as my knees wobbled and I started to fall back down, surprisingly my fall stopped as well and I saw that a blue hedgehog had caught me and was now supporting me. "Yo didn't you hear what season it is? It's 'Spring' not 'Fall'!" As he said this he wrapped my arm around his collar and indicated for the adolescent from earlier to help hold me up, he immediately responded and did the same action with my other arm. "A-Are you alright?" He asked waiting patiently for an answer, Oh! How I wanted to talk back but I was silent for the moment, 'Curse this disability!' I thought to myself.

I gave him a nod this made him lose his frightened expression and a warm smile came across instead, but it returned in a split second as an angry voice yelled at all of us.

"Tails, Sonic, what are you doing?" All of us directed our attention to the origin of the voice, and I saw a red-echidna which made me silently gasp, I had not seen an echidna in so long! He bore the resemblance of his ancestors, that fierce face, the determined aura, the clenched fists always ready to get in a brawl. His position, however, helped me remember what the Master Emerald told me to do it involved the last living guardian and I little message I had to give him, both verbally and physically. He was still barking at us when I focused back into reality, after a few seconds the hedgehog intervened "Knuckles I don't think he's a bad guy, if he was he would've already killed us right?"

"Be careful about what you say Sonic, he could be just biding his time waiting for us lower our guard then, BAM, were all killed without a second thought!" The echidna argued increasing his volume.

"Knuckles I don't think he means us any harm, I think he's just a little lost it has been five-thousand years or something like that?" The fox objected, he then continued on "He hasn't said a word this whole time, why don't we let him tell his side?" The echidna tried to think of something to combat this idea, but he just stomped around and huffed out. "Alright that sounds fair." The kits smiled returned to him and he gave me the floor to speak, but it was still a problem for me as I tried my best to utter a whisper all that came out was complete silence not even the sound of exhaling passed my lips.

Once again the fox's smile left and it was replaced by confusion. "Go on he won't bite, I promise." He mistakened my silence for fear so I shook my head quickly making him more confused. "Well what's wrong then?" He asked waiting for an answer I could not give, he chuckled nervously and apologized to which I gave him a raised eyebrow look.

"Well Tails, if he can't speak, how are we going to go about this?" The hedgehog questioned looking past me to his friend.

"Maybe he could write us an answer?"

"No paper or pencil bud..."

"What about sign language?"

"Does he even know that, better yet do you?"

"No..." As they discussed, they started walking (More like drag me) me to the shrine making the echidna watch me with steady eyes. "Charades?" The kit continued his possibilities. "Uh, how about no?" The hedgehog responded rather rudely, I decided to intervene by moving my hands around in a fast motion this caught the attention of both making them stop in their tracks.

"What, what is it boy?" The hedgehog joked again, looking at me with excited eyes making mine roll. I indicated the fox with my head and he got a surprised look.

"Wha-? Me?" I nodded my head to agree with his statement and then moved my hand away from his support and held it out for him to grab. "Do you want me to take your hand?" I nodded again and just as he was about to grab my hand the echidna barked again.

"Careful Tails, I still don't trust him..."

"You say that about everyone you meet Knuckles." He scoffed. "The point is I trust him, and that's good enough for me." I smiled to indicate my gratitude and he did the same and grabbed my hand, I secured the grip and I started to concentrate on his mind I needed all the information to make it in this place. I had found many things on this particular person, so much I wouldn't bore you with it, all you needed to really know about him was that his name was Miles 'Tails' Prower, age 16, has a love interest named Cosmo, and is best friends with the blue hedgehog whose name was Sonic. The flow of information was cut off as I felt a concrete force hit me full on, making me losing my grip and knocking me back a few inches to my knees.

As I shook the pain off, I heard the echidna's gruff voice again. "See I told you, he can't be trusted! Just look what he tried to do to Tails!" I looked straight at him with annoyed eyes, sighing and tried to get up off the ground.

"Go ahead stand up again, I'll just knock you down!" He threatened, I focused my attention on something more pressing and that was because Tails was a little out of it, his head moved slowly looking around and he held it either in pain or in confusion, I hoped it was the second one.

"Tails, you okay?" I heard Sonic ask his friend ready to catch him if he fell unconscious. Tails snapped back to reality and responded with. "Yeah I'm okay, that was weird, what did you do to me?" I tried to speak yet again but only unintelligible mumbles came out, I dropped my head in frustration.

"I felt you, in my mind, what were you looking for? Why did you need the information so badly?"

"So he could find your weaknesses, he wants to make easy prey out of us all!" The echidna proclaimed still looking at me for any unwanted movement.

"Knuckles you're so paranoid, and to think that you said you're not like your ancestors and that you've learned from their mistakes. Sound like lies to me." I heard a mysterious new voice enter my ears, I hadn't noticed him before but he was just behind a supporting pillar in the shine with his jet black fur it was almost like he blended in with the shadows themselves his twilit eyes had a foreboding feeling about them and I wondered what his true intentions were here. As he stepped out of the embracing shadow his image was highly recognizable and that was because him and Sonic looked alike, if it wasn't for the fur you could get the two mixed up quite easily, unlike the rest of the people in the group his Chaotic Power was decent about 1,000 at best but you can't judge people just because of readings, it'll be your biggest mistake yet when fighting an opponent.

"That's not true; it's just that in this case I have to be on guard. Sometimes paranoia is a good thing you know and it's even truer if it involves a being of pure awesome power!" I didn't know whether to be offended or complimented by the statement.

"Hey, the way I see were all still alive and until that changes I think the guy's alright…" Sonic stated on my behalf.

"That's not a good change to wait for..." The echidna said softly, Sonic asked Tails if he could walk to me and continue the mind scan, Tails slowly nodded and was soon standing next to me offering his hand yet again, I took it and the flow was reconnected. I learned many facts about their lives, how they fought against a similar being of chaos, fought off against a giant lizard, and took out a group of aliens that threatened their planet, clearly these people could preserve through just about anything. As I got the last bit of info, I retracted my hand and started to push myself off the ground again, my knees straightened themselves out and I slowly put one foot in front of the other. I felt the astonishment of the group and couldn't help but smile at their amazement, it's as though I did a magic trick.

I looked up at the echidna losing my smile replacing it with a serious face; I tested my vocal chords at him making another gasp come out of them all. "Echidna…. I have been…. waiting a long time to give you this…" His fierce attitude was quickly turned into worry as I neared him but he wiped it away, as he began to walk towards me as well, and I felt the tenseness in the air increasing with every step He and I made. "Hey you don't have to do this." I heard the fox quietly say next to me, I ignored him and kept walking, the echidna and I met in the middle of the field and we stared each other down waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Listen you, I know my ancestors really screwed up with you guys and I'm sorry for that. But if you think that I am going to let you have your way with this world then you are sorely mistaken, I am the guardian of the Master Emerald, I am Knuckles and I will protect those until the bitter end! Now c'mon let's see what you got!" Knuckles challenged me and held out both arms in an outstretched cross. "Go on hit me!" He continued, I decided it was time to give what this Echidna what he deserved. I pulled back my hand, open palmed and I quickly turned to the left following with my hand deftly slapping the guardian in the face. As the slap echoed all around the field I saw very puzzled faces on everyone, they ranged from confusion to face saying 'What did you just do?'

Knuckles rubbed his face where the slap connected and he looked at me in pure shock, I then said to him. "That was for all the times you lost the emeralds, for shame Knuckles, I mean you're a guardian for God's sake get it together!" Knuckles face was still frozen with shock as were the others. "Well have you got something to say?" I asked him snapping him out of his stupor.

"I'm sorry I'm afraid I didn't quite get the memo, but why did you do that?"

"The Master Emerald told me to." I explained which made him shake his head in confusion.

"Wait The Master Emerald asked you to do that, that thing?" He pointed to The Master Emerald and I nodded.

"But why, what did I do?"

"Like I said, you keep losing the emeralds and The Master Emerald thought you needed a wakeup call. So he specifically told me to 'Slap some sense into him'" Knuckles groaned at my statement making me the confused one, and then he recollected himself asking me this.

"So you're not going to try and kill us then?" I gave him a shocked expression.

"No, why would I do that?"

"Because you have a bunch of pent up aggression toward the world for technically killing your whole kind?!"

"Oh no, that's all in the past Knuckles, no I'm here to help you all against a greater evil…" I informed them, making the others snap out of their confusion.

"What great evil are you talking about?" Sonic asked as the group circled around me in interest.

"The Negative Energy Speaker of old, his name I will not say now, it is unimportant at this period of time." I answered them and continued. "I, and six others, have been waiting for this day in the Chaos Void so that we could fulfill our duty. Protect the Mobians from the wrath of The Negative Energy Speaker." I presented my mark to them all and let off my pure aura. "I am Cyrus, a Marked of the White Emerald, the energy of Dreams and Wishes. I hope that we can go through this together as friends." Sonic look my hand and firmly shook it giving me a friendly wink.

"Nice to meet you Cyrus, my name is-"

"I know who you are, your Sonic the Hedgehog, you're the hero of these people."

"How'd you find out about that, seeing as how you just materialized out of nowhere like that, I can see how you would know Knuckles because of your history…"

"Well when I grabbed a hold of Tails's hand I used a technique known as Chaos Mind Scan which allowed me to pull out some much needed information, it also gave me the abilities to walk and talk." I explained. "I also got some information on Tails's personal life," I turned to Tails continuing, "I didn't mean to intrude on your privacy it's just a side effect to the scan." He told me not to worry about it then asked me a question about my type of energy.

"The emeralds are made up of different energies; the white one is made up of all the wishes and dreams of the people my entire being is made of this energy without it I would fade away into The Void."

"What is this 'void' you keep talking about?" Shadow asked me the next question.

"The Chaos Void is the birth place of all Chaotic Beings and Chaotic Energy, think of it like a processing unit. The people's emotions are like the starting material, in The Void they are taken into different 'refiners' so to speak, they are then made into one of three things. Void Entities, Chaotic Energy, or Marked like me." I grabbed my emerald, it made the guardian uneasy but I reassured him telling him I would put it back when I was done explaining. "The Chaotic Energy is stored into the emerald and, when you use it, it'll give the energy to you."

"So basically it's like a electricity conductor it only gives out energy when we use it?" Sonic asked scratching his head. I corrected him and stated this holding up the emerald in a presenting fashion. "The emerald always dispels energy, for Chaos is all around us, but it does that in little amounts. When you use it releases the energy all at once." Sonic nodded his head in an understanding motion, but his brows were still furled in confusion, I was going to have a rough time with him.

I put the emerald back like promised, making Knuckles calm down then I asked if anyone had any more questions about me or what I was here for, surprisingly Shadow kept the flow of questions going asking how strong me and my companions were.

"I would say our Chaotic Readings are about 100,000 and when we really try it can reach up to 140,000."

"What type of training do you do to get it that high?" He had a tone of amazement and curiosity

"Well I was born with this power, no training required!" I could feel something new in him, it felt like determination to me but I had no idea why.

"And our enemy, how strong is he?"

"I don't know, you'll have to wait a two years before we know that. He could be really strong, or just like me, but the Master Emerald told me to train you guys up to at least a power of 300,000 or more." I shrugged walking with my hands behind my back.

"Wait you mean all of us?" I heard Tails ask me, I nodded and kept walking I felt a breeze pass me but there was no hint of wind blowing, I then heard Tails close to my ear.

"Cyrus, you scanned my mind right?"

"Yes."

"Then you know I'm not that strong, right?" I stopped and looked at him; worry was in his face again.

"What are you implying, Tails?"

"I'm implying that you shouldn't train me, it would be a waste of time." I took this and was disappointed in him; I slowly shook my head and chuckled.

"The Master Emerald told me you'd be tough…"

"But it's true, I'm not a fighting type of guy, I'm more of an inventor."

"Nonsense, you've fought before, and I've seen it!"

"When did I-"

"Remember that tournament happened, and you had to fight Rouge?" I was trying to bring up his confidence.

"Well yeah, but I lost…" His doubt was great as he hung his head.

"Only because she shocked you with a kiss, the next time was against Emerl, again you lost but even Sonic couldn't beat him."

"Yeah I guess so still…" His doubt was slowly leaving him; I went in to seal the deal.

"Let's not forget that you stood up to Shadow when he threatened Cosmo."

He smiled a little, I thought I had him, but his smile faded away.

"But afterwards, I needed medical help and that helped the Meterex catch up with us and…" He paused for a moment to recollect himself, he was on the verge of tears and for good reason too.

"Let's face it, whenever I try to fight I get hurt and everyone tries to help me because I'm the 'little kid', I'm more of a burden than help when I'm out there…" I tried to think of something to make him change his mind, I needed him to destroy The Speaker, I tried telling him this but he just kept telling me he wasn't needed, I sighed and decided to pull out my trump card.

"If you won't do this for me, do it for Cosmo." I reluctantly said to him, I got the reaction I expected him being upset and offended.

"You do not bring her into this…" I felt his cold words hit me like stones, I didn't want to but I had to use it to my advantage.

"Hey I didn't want to do that," I repeated to him. "but I know you don't want to lose her again, and if you can't protect yourself how are you going to protect her?" Tails gave out an aggravated sigh and turned away from me, but he knew I was right.

"Don't worry bud, i'll help you, remember were like brothers you and I." I saw that Sonic rushed over to him and gave him his trademark thumbs up. "You underestimate yourself Tails, and the people that fight you do that to, but you can fight when you need to and right now you need to. Not just for Cyrus, or Cosmo, it's for all the people who are on earth." Tails considered these words coming from Sonics mouth; he then turned back to me and held out his hand.

"I'll do it, for Cosmo and the innocent people." I gladly took his hand and shook it giving him a warm smile.

"Don't worry Tails, I promise to help you in any way I can." He gave me a smile back and we agreed

on good terms.

We all agreed to start training as soon as we could and we all left Knuckles to his guarding duties, as I left with Sonic, Tails, and Shadow I asked them "So who am I going with?" they all stopped dead in their tracks which made me confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked the group.

"You're coming home with one of us?" Sonic asked in his stupor.

"I would hope so, I am helping you stop a great evil, so the least you could do is give me a bed."

"Yeah I guess so, looks like you got a roommate Shadow-" Shadow was gone, he had used Chaos Control about ten seconds ago Sonic then quickly said to Tails.

"You got this covered bro!" He then sped off and left Tails and I in the dust, I looked at Tails and asked him.

"So where to, roommate?" Tails groaned in frustration and got very close to me, his voice was very serious.

"Listen to me, under no circumstances are you to use your power around the house, if you have any okay?" I nodded and crossed my heart. "You will especially not do it my house , I swear if one little thing is out of place I'll-" He calmed down and put his hands on my shoulders.  
"Just promise not to do anything stupid or dangerous in my house, okay?" I nodded and gave him another crossed heart he sighed and began to escort me to his home. I had two years to make them ready for their perilous battle, and to find the rest of my Marked brethren, I will not fail you Master Emerald I swear to you that.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review tell me how I'm doing and feel free to follow, share, and favorite.

Also got check out E-Vay, she's an amazing drawer and if you liked this you will love her!

Thanks for viewing or visiting! -Qewey-01


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